Project Magneto is nearing the culmination of over a year’s worth of work, testing, modifying, rinsing, and repeating. And I have loved every minute of it. This is my favorite thing about owning a late model: You take a running and driving car, race it and modify it to go faster, step by step. It’s thrilling to see your hard work and dollars make tangible progress that you can enjoy instantly. All along the goal was to switch the boosted S550 to an E85 fuel system because there was finally a plug-and-play product on the market for our 2018 Mustang GT — and because we knew the potential it would unlock with our VMP-blown Coyote.

For a quick refresher, Project Magneto sports a VMP Loki supercharger kit with ramped-up boost supported by Kooks headers and full exhaust; a Suncoast 10R80 automatic transmission; and a Steeda suspension. It went a heart-breaking 10.0 on our last trip to drag strip and we wanted more! The Loki kit is a bit of old news at this point (It was new when we got it!) now that the Gen 6 VMP kits offer so much more potential. That said, we wanted to see what the TVS2650 was capable of without even upgrading to the Odin kit with its big and slightly less street-friendly throttle body. Heck, we’re still running a factory air box on the car (with a K&N filter).

DeatschWerks Enters the Chat

Before DeatschWerks’ latest offerings, there was definitely a gap in the market when it came to S550 Mustang fuel systems. When we built our 1,000-rear-wheel-horsepower Project Boosted Coyote years ago, we used DeatschWerks parts, but had to piece together the system ourselves. That problem is now solved by the X2 Series Fuel Pump Module (PN: 9-401-7030), which offers dual DW400s that each flow 415 liters per hour at 40 psi. According to DW’s handy fuel pump calculator, this setup supports 1,600 rear-wheel horsepower on gasoline and 1,200 rear-wheel horsepower on true E85. Considering Magneto made 666 horsepower on its last trip to Pro Dyno, a couple more pounds of boost and E85 shouldn’t put us anywhere near that. However, should we ever upgrade to an Odin or Gen 6 kit, we’ll have the fuel system to support it.

The DW kit comes with an aluminum hat to fit the pair of DW400s into the factory bucket, venturi, fuel socks, and all the hardware to install it. “The bucketed system maintains all factory self-filling functions,” stated Dakota Bowman of DeatschWerks. “All venturi are operational to guarantee low-fuel-level function and constant slosh protection for spirited or track driving. All of the components are ethanol-compatible.”

Gone are the days of needing to keep it above half a tank to avoid slosh… — Dakota Bowman, DeatschWerks

Some assembly is required, but even with the stock bucket the DeatschWerks module looks too pretty to hide in the tank (but we will).

The real magic, some might say, is in converting the factory returnless system to a return-style fuel system. “The justification for running a return-style system is when a single pump is no longer good enough for the job,” Bowman informed us. “The factory fuel filter, module, and regulator are not built to support multiple pumps. The regulator and filter restrict fuel flow capacity and fitment — especially if you are trying to maintain proper regulation and slosh protection provided by the stock bucket. Using the DW module, you can maintain all these functions without losing any slosh protection or low-level use. Gone are the days of needing to keep it above half a tank to avoid slosh.

My favorite part of this upgrade is that DeatschWerks offers an entire kit with everything you need to convert to a return-style system, from the fuel pressure regulator and filter to DW’s line of high-quality AN lines, fittings and hose ends. (Not having to run back and forth to the parts store for fittings or order online and wait days for it to arrive pleases me greatly.) The completion kits are available in CPE or PTFE, but we highly suggest spending the extra couple bucks for PTFE to enhance durability and reduce the chances of fuel vapors smelling up your garage.

For injectors, we again used DW’s online calculator to determine we needed 1,000cc injectors for the increased fuel demands of E85. With a target of 900 crank horsepower at 85-percent injector duty cycle, we needed exactly 964 cc per minute using 85 percent ethanol. In case you are wondering, switching to E98 requires over 1,100 cc per minute and methanol is just shy of 2,400 cc per minute with our supercharged application. There are some assumptions made about Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (or efficiency), but it works well enough to keep you from going as lean as Mick Jagger.

DW’s injectors come flow-matched and with the injector data ready to plug into your tuning software, to ensure ease of tuning.

Since we have no intention of using E98 or methanol, DW’s application-specific 1,000 cc/min USCAR injectors (PN: 17U-04-0095-8) fit the bill on Project Magneto. DW offers a downloadable spreadsheet that is beautifully designed with injector data you can plug right into your tuning software for things like battery voltage compensation, minimum pulse width, and flow rate at various fuel pressure. Having injector data is the difference between tuning “at” something and calibrating with precision. And, these injectors are flow-matched, which is ideal with an OEM ECU that can’t do individual cylinder tuning or utilize eight wideband oxygen sensors to correct — another area where cheap injectors can bite you. If you want a high-powered vehicle that idles and drives around town like stock, these are two critical factors (injector data and flow matching).

I am Magneto, and I’m (About to Become) an Alcoholic

When we first started this build we were located in Southern California with easy access to pump E85 that was normally pretty stable (and high!) in its ethanol content. However, moving to south Charlotte — while great for accessing drag strips —  meant being far from any E85 pumps. This is a regular issue at Mustang Week, as well for the same reason. And just like at Mustang Week, there is a solution, and its name is BOOSTane. As the name implies, they make boost-friendly octane additives and even E85 race fuel. We’ve been using BOOSTane Professional since we bolted on the VMP blower thanks to a bad tank of gas, and it’s been phenomenal. Expectations were high for E85 Race Fuel.

Without a flex fuel sensor and the ability to adjust air/fuel and timing on the fly based on ethanol content, using a pail of BOOSTane E85 is really the best solution to ensure your tune is spot-on every time you fill up the tank. Pump E85 can be as low as 50 percent ethanol and as high as 85 percent, which is a huge swing when you consider that 85 percent ethanol requires 30 percent more fuel than straight gasoline. And not only is BOOSTane’s version more consistent, it’s also not ethanol mixed with 15 percent donkey urine. Each pail maintains a consistent 100 octane. And being that this fuel is tested, BOOSTane provides the fuel’s specific stoich data (9.91:1) to plug into your tuning software of choice — so it’s nice not to guess based on some a mixed fuel cocktail like running methanol injection.

Pro Dyno kicked things off top-side by unhooking the battery and fuel lines. Getting to the fuel injectors would mean unbolting the top of the blower to access the fuel rails.

Follow the Road to Fort Mill

For the installation and dyno tuning, we are once again returning to Pro Dyno, which has done most of the work on the car since I arrived in Charlotte. The plan was to swap the fuel system, dyno test on pump gas with BOOSTane, and drain the tank for the E85 and bolt up a 3.1-inch supercharger pulley from VMP Performance. The trusty Dynojet would tell the tale of the tape as we stepped up in octane and intake temperature cooling thanks to the latent heat of vaporization that ethanol affords.

Even on cool days, we regularly saw over 120 degrees of intake temperature on the blown Coyote at the track. This is why ethanol (like methanol) is so popular, along with VMP’s trunk-mounted ice tanks and the new Gen 6 screw blower. For those of you that perhaps don’t remember high school science class, ethanol removes heat from the air as it changes from liquid to gas. So does gasoline actually — the reason some believe carbs make more power — but ethanol’s latent heat of vaporization figure is nearly three times higher. The high injection pressure from direct injection only amplifies this effect.

Upon arriving in Fort Mill, South Carolina, (just across the border) the boys got started by removing the back seat to access the trap door for the fuel tank. After breaking the fuel pump assembly free of the tank, they removed the bucket to get started. The disassembly and assembly process from there was fairly straightforward if you have ever installed a fuel pump before. The anodized aluminum pieces from DW provide the containment structure for the two pumps, but the hat requires some minor wiring. Since our flow capabilities were greatly increased, we were able to remove our voltage booster and rely on just 12 volts to provide all the flow we needed. Once everything was assembled and put back into the factory bucket with the venturi and socks, it was slipped back into the factory tank. And then the process began of assembling the fuel lines and fittings.

Some bending of the factory floor (under the seat) was required for clearance of the fuel pump fittings. Otherwise, it was fairly seamless. None of the factory hard lines are reused in this kit. Instead, -8 AN feed and return lines are used. The DW hose ends don’t require any high-dollar hose crimper to install, you simply cut the hose and push in the insert for the outer collar to screw on. Having never installed this kit before, we were a little unsure as to the routing of the hoses to and from the port-injection fuel rails as well as the high-pressure pump. With the routing that DW recommends, much like the kit VMP and others offer, the supply line goes into one port-injection rail. Many have said this is perfectly fine for over 800 rear-wheel horsepower, but having no experience with it, we felt a little safer purchasing a few extra fittings to “T” the connection.

To install the injectors, we unbolted the blower lid and pulled it out of the way. It was also handy to unbolt the lower manifold between the fuel injectors and the lines that needed to be run. There was a nice moment between two technicians at Pro Dyno (their identities will remain anonymous for their protection) where they had to find each other’s hands behind the back of the blower that I will always cherish having witnessed (It was nearly Valentine’s Day after all.). I highly recommend having a good buddy help you with this install for this very reason. Anyways, we found a handy spot for the fuel pressure regulator near the brake lines on the driver-side strut tower, and away we went.

E85 Dyno Testing

After re-establishing our baseline pulls for the 3.3-inch pulley (remember blower cars lose or gain boost depending on weather), we added our BOOSTane E85, made a couple pulls, and then swapped pulleys on the dyno. And boy did it respond! Before we even started hitting our peak engine rpm it was already making substantially more power after a few tweaks to the tune. By the time all was said and done, Dan added two more degrees of timing for the ethanol and we eclipsed 722 horsepower at only 6,560 rpm with 628 lb-ft of torque at 4,750 rpm. Normally we pull the Gen 3 up to 7,800 rpm, but it seems like there may be belt slip on the top end (Unless we maxed out the factory intake tract…). This ended our dyno session for the day, but we’ve got a few more parts and test sessions ahead to dial this in even further. The good news is that with a decent 60-foot time, we should have our 9-second time slip.

The red and orange were our baseline pulls with the 3.3-inch supercharger pulley. The blue is the 3.3-inch pulley with E85 — a 64-horsepower jump! The green is with the 3.1-inch pulley, which you can tell by the lower peak RPM that there is an issue. We believe this was belt-slip, and have already ordered the heavy-duty tensioner from VMP (The upgraded belt and pulley options are not standard on the Loki kit.).